AFRICA 

AND 

THE  DRINK  TRADE. 

BY 

CANON  FARRAR,  D.TX,  FAR.S. 

*AND 

FREE  RUM  ON  THE  CONGO. 


W.  T.  HORNADAY, 


NEW  YORK: 

The  National  Temperance  Society  and  Publication  House, 

58  READE  STREET. 

1887. 


AFRICA  AND  THE  DRINK  TRADE. 


BY  CANON  FARRAR,  D.D.,  F.R.S. 

Africa  has  been  the  last  of  the  great  continents  to 
disclose  its  secrets  to  the  pioneers  of  civilization;  but 
in  this  century,  and  especially  in  the  last  sixty  years,  it 
has  done  so  in  all  its  regions.  A host  of  travellers — 
starting  from  Egypt,  or  from  the  Cape,  or  from  Zanzibar, 
or  from  St.  Paul  de  Loanda — have  traversed  its  breadth, 
and  penetrated  far  into  its  interior.  Its  vast  waterways 
and  inland  lakes  have  been  explored.  The  basins  of  the 
Niger,  the  Congo,  and  the  Zambesi  have  been  opened  to 
commerce;  and  the  Nile,  for  the  first  time  since  man 
was,  has  been  traced  to  its  hidden  fountains.  Many  have 
cherished  high  hopes  that  now,  at  last,  might  be  ad- 
dressed to  the  Dark  Continent  the  words — “ Arise,  shine  ; 
for  thy  light  is  come.” 

Nothing  can  be  loftier  than  the  ideal  of  Christianity; 
nothing  more  beautiful  than  the  aspirations  of  that  love 
for  man  which  Christianity  inspires.  Might  not  every- 
thing which  was  blessed  and  hopeful  be  anticipated  from 
the  combined  influences  of  civilization  and  the  Gospel  ? 
Had  not  England  learned,  by  fatal  experience,  how  easy 
it  is  to  commit  irreparable  crimes  against  the  helpless 
childhood  of  the  world?  Had  not  primeval  races  per- 
ished before  the  advancing  footsteps  of  her  sons,  like  the 
line  of  snow  when  the  sunlight  reaches  it?  Might  not 
many  tribes  and  nations  be  enumerated  which,  in  the 

(3) 


4 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 


last  two  centuries,  have  either  ceased  to  exist,  or  have 
withered  into  despair  and  decrepitude,  simply  from  hav- 
ing been  brought  into  contact  with  the  vices  and  diseases 
of  European  races,  and  from  having  found  those  vices 
and  diseases  to  be  agents  of  destruction  far  more  potent 
than  could  be  counteracted  by  any  advance  in  intellectual 
or  spiritual  knowledge  ? Is  it  not  strictly  true  that  the 
footsteps  of  the  Aryan  man,  as  he  Jjas  traversed  the 
globe  in  his  path  of  commerce  and  conquest,  have  been 
footsteps  dyed  in  blood  ? And  might  it  not  be  antici- 
pated that — in  the  nineteenth  century  at  least — we  have 
become  humane  and  noble  enough  to  have  profited  by 
the  disastrous  lesson? 

There  was  a further  reason  why  we  might  have  felt 
high  hopes  for  the  future  of  the  African  tribes  in  particu- 
lar. Africa  has  been  the  chosen  field  for  the  exertions 
of  the  Christian  and  the  philanthropist.  Some  of  our 
noblest  explorers  have  been  animated  to  their  heroic 
efforts — not  by  the  desire  for  fame,  not  by  the  enthusi- 
asm of  discovery — but  by  motives  of  the  purest  pity.  It 
was  the  aim  alike  of  General  Gordon  in  the  Soudan,  and 
of  David  Livingstone  in  Central  Africa,  to  put  an  end 
to  the  iniquities  of  the  slave  trade.  In  the  centre  of  the 
nave  of  Westminster  Abbey  is  the  grave  in  which  lie  the 
remains  of  David  Livingstone — carried  by  his  faithful 
blacks  during  an  eight  months’  journey  to  the  coast,  and 
identified  in  England  by  the  marks  of  the  lion’s  claws 
upon  his  arm.  That  grave  attracts  universal  attention  ; 
and  on  it  are  inscribed  the  last  words  he  wrote  in  his 
diary,  before  he  closed  his  eyes — with  none  but  black 
faces  round  him — in  his  humble  hut  at  Chetamba’s  vil- 
lage, Ulala.  They  are  : “ All  I can  add,  in  my  solitude, 
is:  May  Heaven’s  rich  blessing  come  down  on  every 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 


5 


one — American,  English,  or  Turk — who  will  help  to  heal 
this  open  sore  of  the  world.”  That  open  sore  was  the 
slave  trade.  And  under  those  words  is  the  text : “ Other 
sheep  I have,  which  are  not  of  this  fold : them  also  I 
must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice.” 

We  are  proud — and  justly  proud — of  the  integrity  and 
generosity  of  our  fathers  in  abolishing  the  slave  trade, 
and  in  being  willing  to  pay  £20, 000,000  for  enfranchis- 
ing the  slave.  In  all  our  800  years  of  history  there  are 
on  our  statute-book  no  nobler  acts  than  these.  No 
Englishman  refers  to  them  without  a glow  of  pardonable 
satisfaction ; and  among  foreign  writers  they  are  the 
theme  of  unmingled  eulogy.  The  men  who  toiled  and 
suffered  in  the  cause  of  the  slave  are  rewarded  with 
cenotaphs  in  our  national  Valhalla.  There  we  read  how 
Zachary  Macaulay,  “during  a protracted  life — with  an 
intense  but  quiet  perseverance,  which  no  success  could 
relax,  no  reverse  could  subdue,  no  toil,  privations,  or  re- 
proach could  daunt — devoted  his  time,  talents,  fortune, 
and  all  the  energies  of  his  mind  and  body,  to  the  service 
of  the  most  injured  and  helpless  of  mankind”;  and  how 
Granville  Sharp,  “ founding  public  happiness  on  public 
virtue,  desired  to  raise  his  native  country  from  the  guilt 
and  inconsistency  of  employing  the  arm  of  Freedom  to 
rivet  the  fetters  of  Bondage,  and  establish  for  the  negro 
race  the  long-disputed  rights  of  human  nature.”  It  is 
added  that,  in  this  glorious  work,  “having  triumphed 
over  the  combined  resistance  of  Interest,  Prejudice,  and 
Pride,  he  took  his  post  among  the  foremost  of  the  hon- 
orable band  associated  to  deliver  Africa  from  the  rapacity 
of  Europe.”  1 

Can  it  be  believed  that  we,  the  sons  of  the  generation 
which  achieved  these  noble  ends,  and  made  these  worthy 


6 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 


sacrifices,  have  been  so  little  true  to  their  memory  as  to 
inflict  on  this  unhappy  continent  a curse  far  deadlier 
than  that  which  our  fathers  successfully  labored  to  re- 
move? Such,  if  we  may  trust  the  most  abundant  and 
the  most  varied  evidence,  is  the  plain  fact  in  all  its  naked 
ugliness.  If  those  who  are  animated  by  the  enthusiasm 
of  humanity  have  ventured  to  believe  that,  taught  by 
past  experience,  we  should  make  our  presence  in  Africa 
at  any  rate,  an  unmitigated  blessing,  those  hopes  have 
been  cruelly  and  shamefully  blighted.  The  old  rapacity 
of  the  slave  trade  has  been  followed  by  the  greedier  and 
more  ruinous  rapacity  of  the  drink-seller.  Our  fathers 
tore  from  the  neck  of  Africa  a yoke  of  whips ; we  have 
subjected  the  native  races  to  a yoke  of  scorpions.  Our 
fathers  conferred  on  that  vast  and  hapless  continent  a 
most  precious  boon ; we  have  more  than  neutralized  the 
boon  by  the  wholesale  introduction  of  an  intolerable 
bane.  We  have  opened  the  rivers  of  Africa  to  commerce, 
only  to  pour  down  them  that  “ raging  Phlegethon  of 
alcohol,”  than  which  no  river  of  the  Inferno  is  more 
blood-red  or  more  accursed.  Is  the  conscience  of  the 
nation  dead  ? If  not,  will  no  voice  be  raised  of  sufficient 
power  to  awaken  it  from  a heavy  sleep  ? Chatham  called 
upon  the  Bishops  to  interpose  the  unsullied  sanctity  of 
their  lawn,  and  the  Judges  to  interpose  the  purity  of 
their  ermine,  to  prevent  the  atrocity  of  a nation  availing 
itself  of  the  tomahawk  of  savages.  Are  there  none  of 
sufficient  authority  now  to  wield  the  mighty  enginery  of 
the  moral  sense  against  “ the  devil’s  work  which  is  being 
done  by  the  conscienceless  greed  of  the  drink  traders,” 
and  to  storm  that  Quadrilateral  which,  as  the  Echo 
rightly  said  the  other  day,  is  fortified  by  the  fourfold 
combination  of  ignorance,  habit,  appetite,  and  interest  ? 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 


7 


Many  years  ago,  in  Mr.  Ruskin’s  house  at  Denmark 
Hill,  I was  sitting  at  lunch  opposite  to  Turner’s  mag- 
nificent and  awful  picture  of  the  slave-ship.  I could 
think  of  nothing  else,  as  I gazed  spellbound  at  those 
waves  incarnadined  with  sunset  and  horrible  with  the 
scene  of  murder.  And  as  I was  trying  to  take  in  the 
full  awfulness  of  the  moral  protest  which  the  picture 
embodied,  “Yes,”  said  Mr.  Ruskin,  “that  is  Turner’s 
sermon  against  the  slave  trade.”  Is  no  artist  great 
enough,  or  deeply-moved  enough,  to  preach  such  a ser- 
mon against  the  worse,  because  more  plausible,  more  se- 
ductive, more  creeping,  and  more  destroying  shameful- 
ness of  the  drink  traffic,  which  inevitably  involves  not 
only  the  demoralization,  but  even  the  sure  if  slow  ex- 
tinction of  native  races  ? At  any  rate,  those  who  read 
the  evidence  here  adduced  are  bound  to  refute  it,  or  if 
this  cannot  be  done — as  indeed  it  cannot — to  admit  that, 
unless  immediate  steps  be  taken  to  undo  the  mischief 
which  our  carelessness  and  our  prejudices  and  our  sac- 
rifice to  the  mean  doctrines  of  political  expediency  have 
caused,  we  shall  stand  wholly  inexcusable  before  God 
and  before  mankind. 

The  results  of  the  drink  trade  under  its  present  con- 
ditions are  horrifying  enough  and  sickening  enough  at 
home.  In  the  limits  of  one  London  parish,  little  exceed- 
ing 4,000  souls,  I have  personally  witnessed  how,  from 
year  to  year,  drink  is  the  cause  of  assault,  of  burglary,  of 
prostitution,  of  incest,  of  suicide,  of  horrible  cruelties,  of 
children  dying  like  flies,  of  the  beating  of  aged  women 
by  their  own  drunken  sons,  of  the  trampling  and  maim- 
ing of  wives  by  the  loathely  ruffians  whom  they  call  their 
husbands,  but  whom  drink  maddens  into  fiends;  of  well- 
nigh  every  crime  on  the  dark  list  of  the  calendar  except 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 


the  direct  shedding  of  blood,  and  even  of  that,  except 
that  the" poor  miserable  victims  “ die  so  slowly  that  none 
call  it  murder.”  All  this,  in  the  most  literal  sense,  I 
have  seen  going  on  at  our  doors,  under  the  very  shadow 
of  the  Abbey,  and  within  bow-shot  of  our  great  Houses 
of  Legislature.  And  when  I look  from  the  narrow  limits 
of  one  drink-afflicted  parish — in  which  yet  the  temper- 
ance agencies  are  exceptionally  active,  though  unavail- 
ing, against  the  temptation  of  glaring  public-houses  in 
every  street — when  I look  over  the  world  from  China  to 
Peru,  I find  everywhere  the  hideous  evidences  of  the 
curse  caused  by  drink.  It  causes  tens  of  thousands  of 
premature  deaths ; it  is  the  most  prolific  parent  of  all 
kinds  of  disease ; it  is  the  commonest  cause  of  fatal  ac- 
cidents ; it  yearly  produces  a widespread  infant  mortality  ; 
to  it  is  due  the  most  abject  and  the  most  degraded  pau- 
perism. In  the  words  of  the  late  Duke  of  Albany,  it  is 
“ the  only  deadly  enemy  England  has  to  fear.”  It  is  the 
curse  of  the  poorest ; the  curse  of  the  most  miserable  of 
our  youths ; the  curse  of  every  home  of  which  it  takes 
hold  ; the  curse  of  our  young  colonists  all  over  the  globe ; 
the  curse  of  every  nation  and  race  with  which  we  come 
in  contact ; the  curse  of  universal  Christendom  ; the 
curse  which  more  powerfully  than  any  other  impedes  the 
progress  of  Christianity ; the  curse  which  dogs  from  land 
to  land  and  from  clime  to  clime  the  course  of  European 
civilization.  The  reiterated  proofs  of  these  facts  are 
patent  for  every  one  to  see.  We  do  not  invent  them  ; 
we  only  point  to  them.  No  one  can  escape  from  his 
share  in  the  responsibility  for  this  bad  state  of  things, 
by  the  cheap,  stale,  and  irrelevant  assertion  that  “ tem- 
perance reformers  use  such  intemperate  language  ”;  for 
we  refer  them,  not  to  anything  which  we  have  said,  but 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 


9 


to  the  neutral  annals  of  the  past,  to  the  careful  pages  of 
contemporary  history,  to  the  colorless  records  of  justice, 
to  the  statistical  testimony  of  unbiased  and  official  wit- 
nesses, to  the  Blue  Books  of  the  Legislature,  to  the  Re- 
ports of  Convocation,  to  the  narratives  of  all  classes  of 
travellers,  and  to  the  often  unwilling  admissions  of 
traders  and  physicians.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  this 
black  and  damning  evidence,  the  conscience  of  men  of 
the  world,  the  conscience  even  of  professing  Christians, 
is  not  only  callous,  but  hard  as  the  nether  millstone  to 
the  guilt  and  national  disgrace  which  these  facts  involve. 

The  idle,  the  indifferent,  and  the  interested  seem  to 
think  that  God  can  be  mocked  by  decrepit  jests  and  im- 
moral sophisms.  When  one  hears  such  gibes  repeated 
for  the  millionth  time,  one  feels  induced  to  cry  with 
Cowper : 

“Well  spoken,  advocate  of  sin  and  shame, 

Known  by  thy  bleating,  Ignorance  thy  name  ! ” 

Those  who  care  nothing  for  the  anguish  of  mankind, 
groaning  under  a curse  which  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  full 
House  of  Commons,  described  as  “ more  deadly,  because 
more  continuous,  than  the  three  great  historic  scourges 
of  war,  famine,  and  pestilence  combined,”  think  it  suffi- 
cient to  say,  “ Because  thou  art  virtuous  shall  there  be 
no  more  cakes  and  ale  ?”  They  forget  that  Shakespeare 
puts  that  question  into  the  mouth  of  the  most  despica- 
ble of  his  sots,  and  that,  as  in  his  Cassio  he  shows  us 
how  drink  can  ruin  a noble  mind,  so  in  his  Caliban  he 
prefigures  with  prophetic  insight  the  demoralization  by 
drink  of  the  lowest  races.  Have  we  no  fear  lest  some 
even  of  these,  if  we  suffer  them  to  recover  from  their 
drunkenness,  should  exclaim  of  our  representatives : 


10  Africa  and  the  Dri?ik  Trade . 

“What  a thrice- double  ass 
Was  I,  to  take  this  drunkard  for  a god 
And  worship  this  dull  fool ! ” 

Thus  much  I could  hardly  help  saying  on  the  general 
topic  ; but  my  immediate  subject  is  not  the  curse  of  the 
drink  trade  in  general,  though  it  seems  to  me  one  of  the 
worst  proofs  of  our  national  degeneracy  that  no  effectual 
steps  are  taken  to  restrict  it,  and  that,  so  far,  against  a 
spurious  liberty  and  base  vested  interests,  righteousness 
and  compassion  and  morality  have  lifted  up  their  voice 
in  vain.  It  is  my  narrower  object  to  point  out  the  effects 
of  the  drink  trade  in  one  single  continent.  Ex  nno  disce 
omnes.  What  is  said  of  Africa  might  be  said  with  equal 
truth  of  many  a tribe  and  nation  all  over  the  world — of 
Hindostan,  of  Burmah,  of  Ceylon,  of  parts  of  China  to 
which  we  have  access  ; of  the  North  American  Indians, 
of  the  Maoris  of  New  Zealand,  of  the  aborigines  of  many 
lands.  It  is  a tremendous  indictment,  which  it  would 
be  a guilt  to  bring  if  it  could  not  be  substantiated,  and 
which  it  would  be  a sin  not  to  bring  if  it  can.  Christ 
flung  the  offender  against  the  innocence  of  his  little 
ones,  with  a millstone  round  his  neck,  into  the  sea. 
Does  He  cars  for  individuals,  and  does  He  care  nothing 
for  demoralized  and  perishing  nations  ? Does  He  care 
for  the  few,  and  is  He  indifferent  to  the  criminal  destruc- 
tion of  many,  committed  for  the  sake  of  gain  ? Is  there 
to  be  so  awful  a sentence  against  separate  offenders,  and 
none  upon  the  guilt  of  empires?  Is  it  worth  no  more 
solemn  consideration  than  such  as  may  be  involved  in 
the  venting  of  a platitude,  or  the  reiteration  of  a jeer, 
that  we  have  put  the  stumbling-block  of  our  iniquity 
before  the  face  of  God’s  little  ones  over  all  the  world  ? 

The  evidence  which  I shall  adduce  only  exists  in  vari- 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . II 

ous  scattered  Blue  Books,  pamphlets,  and  newspapers, 
and  I summarize  it  here  in  the  hope  that  thus  it  may 
arrest  a more  widespread  notice.  It  has  been  gathered 
by  our  missionaries  and  travellers  ; and  the  noble  zeal  of 
our  great  temperance  societies  has  done  its  utmost  to 
make  known  the  facts.  There  are  some  who  are  ill-in- 
formed enough  to  sneer  at  the  action  of  those  who  are 
called  “Temperance  Reformers”;  but  it  is  enough  to 
quote  respecting  them  the  single  evidence  of  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  who,  with  all  the  weight  of  his  vast  expe- 
rience, said  that  “ but  for  temperance  associations  we 
should  be  immersed  in  such  an  ocean  of  immorality, 
violence,  and  sin  as  would  make  this  country  uninhabit- 
able.” 

That  the  drink  traffic  is  becoming  to  Africa  a deadlier 
evil  than  the  slave  trade  is  a statement  which  may 
startle  some  readers,  yet  it  is  most  certain.  It  is  dead- 
lier in  its  incidence,  and  wider  in  the  area  of  its  perni- 
ciousness. No  one  will  dream  of  regarding  Sir  Richard 
Burton  as  a temperance  fanatic,  yet  in  his  book  on  “ Ab< 
beokuta,”  after  speaking  of  the  ravages  wrought  by  rum 
and  war,  he  adds  : 

“ It  is  my  sincere  belief  that  if  the  slave  trade  were  revived 
with  all  its  horrors,  and  Africa  could  get  rid  of  the  white  man 
with  the  gunpowder  and  rum  which  he  has  introduced,  Africa 
would  be  a gainer  in  happiness  by  the  exchange.” 

And  here  is  the  testimony  of  an  extremely  able  native 
gentleman,  from  whom  I shall  make  several  quotations — 
the  Hon.  the  Rev.  James  Johnson,  the  native  pastor  of 
the  island  of  Lagos.*  In  an  eloquent  speech,  at  the 


* Mr.  Johnson  came  to  England  as  the  representative  of  the 
Christian  natives  of  Lagos,  to  plead  their  cause  before  Parlia- 


12  Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 

memorable  meeting  held  on  March  30th  at  Prince’s  Hall, 
he  said  : “ I may  perhaps  be  allowed  to  refer  to  the  work 
of  emancipation.  Many  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
slaves  were  set  free,  giving  joy  and  pleasure  to  many  a 
heart.  The  work,  however,  in  which  your  interest  is 
now  being  solicited  is  a far  greater  work  than  that. 
[Cheers.]  I say  greater,  because  the  work  of  the  past 
was  to  deliver  the  body  of  the  slave  from  the  grip  of  the 
slave-dealer,  but  the  work  we  have  to  do  now  is  to  de- 
liver the  mind,  the  body,  the  soul,  the  spirit  of  the  na- 
tive race  from  the  power  of  the  great  European  traders. 
The  work  we  are  now  trying  to  do  affects  all  the  races  of 
the  world,  and  I should  like  to  see,  as  the  outcome  of 
this  meeting,  a strong  movement  for  the  suppression  of 
this  traffic  among  native  races.  I represent  here  to-night 
Africa — a country  with  a population  of  over  two  hun- 
dred millions.  This  country,  so  large,  with  a people  so 
numerous,  lies  at  the  mercy  of  the  traders  of  Europe, 
who  are  flooding  it  with  drink.” 

And  again,  before  a meeting  of  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons  in  the  committee-room  on  April  1,  1887, 
he  ended  his  speech  by  saying : 

“ The  slave  trade  had  been  to  Africa  a great  evil,  but  the  evils 
of  the  rum  trade  were  far  worse.  He  would  rather  his  country- 
men were  in  slavery  and  being  worked  hard,  and  kept  away  from 
the  drink,  than  that  the  drink  should  be  let  loose  upon  them.” 

And  here  is  the  verdict  of  an  able  and  well-known 
American  newspaper,  the  New  York  Tribune  of  July  18, 


ment  Lagos  is  a small  island  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  and 
the  key  to  the  Yoruba  country.  It  has  a population  of  75>000 
souls. 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 


13 

1881,  upon  the  ruin  and  demoralization  which  our  drink 
trade  is  causing : 

“ Perhaps  the  most  striking  and  in  every  way  shocking  case 
cited  by  Mr.  Hornaday  is  that  of  the  native  chief  whose  clear 
sight  and  patriotic  spirit  led  him  to  banish  rum  from  his  terri- 
tory, and  whose  protective  measures  were  made  futile  by  the 
manoeuvres  of  a scoundrely  English  trader  who  smuggled  the 
liquor  into  the  country.  Think  of  the  monstrous  hypocrisy  of 
so-called  Christian  nations,  vaunting  themselves  on  their  en- 
lightened civilization,  pretending  a desire  that  the  Gospel  should 
be  carried  to  all  peoples,  and  then  invading  the  Dark  Continent 
armed  with  the  rum  bottle,  and  in  cold  blood  debauching  and 
ruining  its  people.  On  the  one  hand  are  the  missionaries.  On 
the  other  hand  is  the  rum  of  Christendom.  Free  rum  against  a 
free  Gospel ! It  is  to  be  feared  that  Mr.  Hornaday  is  right  in 
prophesying  the  success  of  the  former.  But  what  this  letter 
shows  most  clearly  is  that  unless  the  moral  forces  of  England, 
America,  Germany,  and  Holland  are  organized  and  applied  to 
put  an  end  to  the  outrageous  and  abominable  state  of  things  on 
the  Congo,  a few  years  will  suffice  to  rot  the  heart  out  of  the 
Africans,  and  their  further  development  will  be  made  impos- 
sible. What  is  being  done  out  there  in  the  name  of  commerce 
is  a world-crime  of  a character  so  colossal,  of  an  immorality  so 
shameless  and  profound,  that  if  it  could  be  regarded  as  a type 
and  illustration  of  nineteenth  century  civilization,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  denounce  that  civilization  as  a horrible  sham  and  a 
conspicuous  failure.” 

And  once  more,  Mr.  Joseph  Thomson,  F.R.G.S.,  the 
well-known  African  traveller,  said  in  an  address  before 
the  Manchester  Geographical  Society : 

“The  notorious  gin  trade  is  a scandal  and  a shame,  well 
worthy  to  be  classed  with  the  detested  slave  trade.  We  talk  of 
civilizing  the  negro,  and  we  pour  into  his  unhappy  country  an 
incredible  quantity  of  gin,  rum,  and  gunpowder. 

“The  trade  in  this  baleful  article  (spirit)  is  enormous.  The 
appetite  for  it  increases  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  desire  for 


14 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 


better  things,  and,  to  our  shame  be  it  said,  we  are  ever  ready  to 
supply  the  victims  to  the  utmost,  driving  them  deeper  and 
deeper  into  the  slough  of  depravity,  ruining  their  body  and  soul. 
The  time  has  surely  come  when,  in  the  interests  of  our  national 
honor,  more  energetic  efforts  should  be  made  to  suppress  the 
diabolical  traffic.  There  can  be  no  excuse  for  its  continuance, 
and  it  is  a blot  on  Christian  civilization.” 

I will  now  show  what  we  are  doing  in  Africa,  north 
and  south  and  east  and  west ; and  will  then  briefly  com- 
ment upon  it. 

i.  Of  Northern  Africa  I shall  say  but  little.  Moham- 
medanism is  strong  there ; yet  we  have  the  terrible  tes- 
timony of  Mr.  W.  S.  Caine,  M.  P.,  to  the  harm  done  in 
Egypt  by  the  drink  supplied  to  English  troops,  and  by 
European  capitulations.  He  said  at  Prince’s  Hall : 

“The  native  races  of  Egypt  are  being  demoralized.  We  did 
not  originally  take  the  drink  there.  I have  no  doubt  it  was  there 
before  our  occupation,  and  before  we  undertook  the  joint  gov- 
ernment with  France;  but  it  has  terribly  increased  since  then. 
Twenty  thousand  troops  were  sent  there,  who  gave  a great  stim- 
ulus to  the  drink  business.  Nearly  all  the  conspicuous  public- 
houses  in  Egypt  bear  English  signboards:  ‘The  Duke  of  Edin- 
burgh,’ ‘Queen  Victoria,’  ‘Peace  and  Plenty,’  ‘The  Union  Jack,’ 
etc.  All  the  great  public-houses  are  branded  with  English  names. 
They  do  not  alone  sell  liquor,  but  deal  in  even  a more  disgrace- 
ful vice  than  that.  Each  of  these  public-houses  is  a centre  of 
vice  and  iniquity  of  the  deepest  dye.  I made  careful  inquiry  as 
to  what  was  the  effect  upon  the  native  races  of  Egypt  in  con- 
sequence of  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  in  Egypt.  I find 
that  wherever  our  army  had  gone  up  the  Nile  the  liquor  trade 
had  followed  it ; that  when  they  had  left  the  stations  where 
the  public-houses  were  established,  the  public-houses  remained. 
Where  there  had  been  five  or  six  of  these  flaunting  public-houses 
which  never  existed  before,  there  they  still  remained  after  the 
soldiers  had  gone.  Who  buys  the  liquor  now  ? Why,  the  natives, 
whom,  I am  sorry  to  say,  the  British  soldier  has  largely  taught 


A fried  and . the  Drink  Trade. 


15 


to  drink.  It  is  the  commonest  thing  in  the  world  for  the  British 
soldier  to  treat  his  donkey-boys  to  intoxicating  liquor.  I rode 
on  a good  many  donkeys,  and  became  acquainted  with  the  boys 
in  charge  of  them,  and  found  that  the  demoralizing  influence 
of  the  British  tourists  on  these  boys  was  something  terrible. 
Wherever  the  Englishman  comes  in  contact  with  the  natives  he 
drags  them  down  through  intoxicating  liquors.  I went  to  a 
temperance  meeting — the  only  temperance  meeting  field  in 
Cairo — except  those  in  the  barracks  for  the  soldiers.  That  meet- 
ing was  a large  one,  three  hundred  or  four  hundred  people  being 
present.  Every  one  of  the  speakers  were  natives  of  Egypt,  and 
speeches  were  made  in  Arabic,  which  I am  sorry  to  say  I do  not 
understand,  but  I had  a good  interpreter.  Nearly  every  speech 
was  in  denunciation  of  Englishmen,  Levantines,  and  Europeans, 
and  Christians  in  particular,  for  bringing  this  accursed  drink  to 
them.  They  were  urging  Mohammedans,  whose  religion  forbids 
them  to  drink,  to  sign  the  pledge,  as  we  do  here.  That  alone  is 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  what  I am  saying.  I was  moved  on 
this  subject,  and  went  to  see  the  Khedive  about  it.  I found  him 
an  enlightened,  philanthropic  man,  sincerely  anxious  for  the  wel- 
fare and  happiness  of  his  people.  He  said  that  he  had  viewed 
with  grief  and  shame  the  increase  of  public-houses  in  Cairo  and 
Egypt  since  the  British  army  of  occupation  came.  I asked  him 
what  he  would  like  to  do.  He  said  he  should  like  to  prohibit  the 
sale  altogether.  He  was  a prohibitionist.  His  religion  told  him 
to  be  so ; it  was  an  article  of  his  creed.  He  said,  ‘ I am  power- 
less.’ I said,  * Why  ? ’ He  replied,  * There  are  capitulations  or 
agreements  which  have  been  entered  into  between  the  Turkish 
Government  and  other  Powers  for  the  protection  of  European 
traders,  and  under  these  capitulations  this  liquor  is  forced  upon 
them  to  sell  without  control,  and  so  cheap  that  you  would 
hardly  credit  me  if  I gave  you  the  price.’  They  import  cheap 
spirits  from  Hamburg  with  a duty  of  nine  per  cent. ; and  you 
can  get  drunk  for  two  and  a half  pence,  and  some  of  the  natives 
for  less.  If  I had  one  thing  made  more  clear  than  another  by 
social  reformers  in  Egypt,  it  was  this  fact,  that  a native  once  be- 
ginning the  drink  becomes  a drunkard  almost  immediately,  and 
nothing  brings  him  back.” 


1 6 Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 

In  Egypt  and  the  Soudan  the  prohibition  of  drink  by 
their  prophet  has  been  a powerful  deterrent,  but  it  has 
been  as  ineffectual  as  the  warnings  of  Scripture  to  save 
dark  races  from  a temptation  which,  though  to  them  it 
is  absolutely  fatal,  is  deliberately  thrust  upon  them  by 
the  representatives  of  a higher  and  a Christian  civiliza- 
tion. 

2.  In  Southern  Africa  our  drink  has  done  a yet  more 
deadly  work.  Mr.  J.  A.  Froude  has  told  us  that,  at  the 
beginning  of  this  century,  the  Kaffirs  and  Hottentots 
were  strong  and  flourishing  peoples ; now  they  are  deci- 
mated, degraded,  and  perishing  by  drink.  This  testi- 
mony is  amply  supported.  Of  the  Kaffir,  Mr.  Wheel- 
wright, of  Newlands,  Capetown,  says : 

“ Especially  amongst  the  raw  Kaffirs  there  prevails  a habit  of 
spirit  drinking  (Congo  brandy,  Cape  smoke,  Natal  rum,  and 
like  abominations),  and  as  the  cheap  and  vile  compounds,  con- 
cocted for  their  peculiar  benefit  (?)  are  under  no  restrictions  as 
to  a term  of  bonding,  they  are  supplied  to  the  unhappy  native 
reeking  with  fusel-oil,  and,  especially  in  the  Diamond  Fields, 
create  a mortality  which  would  be  appalling  if  the  figures  were 
attainable.”  * 

Mr.  N.  de  Jersey  Noel,  of  Kimberley,  says  that  “ the 
natives  largely  succumb  to  drink  when  it  is  put  in  their 
way.  The  natives  employed  in  our  diamond  mines  are 
terribly  demoralized  by  drink.” 

Professor  the  Rev.  N.  J.  Hofmeyer,  of  the  Dutch  Re- 
formed Church,  says:  “Traders  of  the  lower  sort  have 
been,  and  still  are,  the  means  of  inflicting  an  unspeakable 
amount  of  misery  upon  the  natives.  If  they  take  to  drink- 


* See  “ British  and  Colonial  Temperance  Congress,”  London, 
1886,  p.  209. 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 17 

ing  brandy,  the  craving  for  it  soon  becomes  uncontrolla- 
ble. In  a short  time  all  their  cattle  are  sold  for  the  pur- 
pose of  buying  brandy  ; they  then  become  thieves,  sink- 
ing to  even  deeper  depths  ; lose  health  and  strength,  and 
miserably  die.  The  drink  traffic  in  South  Africa  means 
ruin  and  death  to  the  natives.  In  1883  it  was  officially 
reported  that  in  two  months  106  natives  had  been  killed 
by  brandy-drinking.  How  many  daily  pine  away  and  die 
under  this  curse  all  over  South  Africa,  of  which  no  human 
record  is  kept ! What  a day  of  retribution  is  awaiting 
the  white  man  ....  except  he  repent  and  seek  the  good 
of  the  race  which  he  is  now  destroying  for  lucre’s  sake ! ” 
Three  years  ago  the  Cape  Parliament  appointed  a Com- 
mission on  the  Liquor  Traffic ; and  here  are  one  or  two 
items  of  the  mass  of  evidence  it  received.  Let  the  na- 
tive kings  and  chiefs  speak  first. 


Cetewayo,  ex-king  of  Zulus : “ Do  you  think  it  a good  thing  to 
allow  the  unrestricted  sale  of  brandy  ? — It  is  a very  bad  thing, 
and  would  ruin  the  country.” 

Kaulelo  and  Fingoe,  headmen  of  Peddie,  say:  “Stop  the  can- 
teens ; that  is  where  our  misfortunes  come  from.” 

W.  S.  Kama  and  his  councillors  say : “ Our  wives  go  to  the 
canteens  and  drink.  They  will  throw  away  their  clothes  and  are 
naked.  They  are  becoming  lost  to  all  sense  of  decency.  The 
white  man  must  stop  from  giving  us  brandy  if  he  wishes  to  save 
us.” 

Petrus  Mahonga  and  Sam  Sigenu : “ This  brandy  is  destroying 
our  nation.” 

Mankai  Renga,  a Tembu  headman  : “ I think  the  people  ought 
not  to  be  allowed  to  purchase  brandy  at  all.  It  is  killing  the 
people  and  destroying  the  whole  country.” 

Umgudlwa,  Mangele,  Sandile,  Vena,  Sigidi,  Sitonga,  Ngcen- 
gana,  Tembu  headmen  : “ The  canteen  destroys  the  people.” 
Chief  Dalasile’s  proposals  : “ 8th.  Dalasile  also  begs  that  the 


1*8  Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 

Government  will  strenuously  prohibit  the  sales  of  brandy  in  his 
country. 

Make  and  about  sixty  other  headmen  of  Idutywa : “ We  do  not 
wish  to  have  canteens  among  us.  A canteen  ruins  a man  : brandy 
destroys  our  manhood.  We  say  we  are  happy  in  this  country 

because  there  are  no  canteens Brandy  is  a fearfully  bad 

thing.  We  would  become  wild  animals  here  if  it  were  introduced. 
If  we  had  brandy  we  should  lose  everything  we  possessed.  I say, 
do  not  let  brandy  come  into  the  country.” 

Umqueke  said  : “ I am  a brandy-drinker  myself,  but  I know 
that  what  has  been  said  is  right.  If  brandy  is  introduced  among 
us,  we  shall  lose  everything  we  have.” 

The  Rev,  J.  A.  Chalmers,  of  Graham’s  Town,  summed 
up  the  opinion  of  the  clergy  when  he  said,  If  the  peo- 
ple are  to  be  saved  at  all,  we  must  restrict  the  sale  of  in- 
toxicants among  them.” 

The  Rev.  Alan  Gibson,  a missionary  of  the  S.  P.  G.  in 
the  Transkei,  said,  “ The  future  of  the  Kaffir  depends  on 
drink  being  kept  from  them.” 

The  Commission  summed  up  its  evidence  in  the  words : 

“ The  use  of  spirituous  liquors  is  an  unmitigated  evil,  and  no 
other  cause  or  influence  ....  is  so  completely  destructive,  not 
only  of  all  progress  and  improvement,  but  even  of  the  reasonable 
hope  of  any  progress  or  improvement.” 

And  Sir  Charles  Warren,  speaking  at  Oxford  on  Octo- 
ber 25,  1886,  said : 

“ The  blood  of  thousands  of  natives  was  at  the  present  time 
crying  up  to  Heaven  against  the  British  race ; and  yet,  from  mo- 
tives of  expediency,  we  refused  to  take  any  action.  ” 

We  are  not  solely  responsible  for  this  terrible  state  of 
things  ; the  Portuguese  are  probably  much  worse.  But 
the  results  are  described  as  follows  by  Dr.  Clark : 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade.  19 

“ On  the  south  coast  of  Africa,  too,  the  people  were  very  de- 
moralized. The  traders  would  sell  a bottle  of  gin  for  6d. ; and 
he  had  seen  thousands  of  girls  lying  drunk  around  the  traders’ 
wagons.” 

The  Basutos  alone  have  partially  liberated  themselves 
from  the  infernal  snare  of  our  temptations.  But  no  thanks 
are  due  to  us.  The  deliverance  has  come  from  the  vig- 
orous temperance  exertions  of  the  chief,  Paulus  Mopeli, 
brother  of  their  chief  Moshesh. 

3.  Turning  to  Eastern  Africa,  we  are  faced  by  the  tragic 
story  of  Madagascar — a story  which  the  Rev.  H.  W.  Lit- 
tle, once  a missionary  on  the  island,  calls  “ without  paral- 
lel for  pathos  and  consuming  interest  in  the  history  of 
the  world.”  In  1800  the  Malagasy  were  a nation  of 
idolaters ; now,  thanks  in  great  measure  to  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  they  are  a nation  of  Christians.  They 
loved,  they  almost  adored  the  English  who  had  done  so 
much  for  them.  Unhappily,  however,  Mauritius  became 
a sugar-producing  colony,  and  rum  was  made  from  the 
refuse  of  the  sugar-mills.  What  was  to  be  done  with  it  ? 
It  was  not  good  enough  for  European  markets,  and  Mada- 
gascar “ was  made  the  receptacle  for  the  damaged 
spirit  of  the  colony ! ” They  received  the  curse  in  their 
simplicity,  and  it  produced  frightful  havoc.  “ The  crime 
of  the  island  rose  in  one  short  year  by  leaps  and  bounds 
to  a height  too  fearful  to  record.”  The  native  Govern- 
ment was  seized  with  consternation,  and  the  able  and 
courageous  king,  Radama  I.,  paid  the  duty,  and  ordered 
every  cask  of  rum  to  be  staved  in  on  the  shore,  ex- 
cept those  that  went  to  the  Government  stores.  The 
merchants  of  Mauritius  complained  ; the  English  offi- 
cials interfered;  and  from  that  day  the  “ cursed  stuff” 
has  had  free  course,  and  deluged  the  land  with  misery 


20 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 


and  crime.  Radama’s  son,  Radama  II.,  a youth  of  great 
promise,  became  a helpless  drunkard  and  a criminal  ma- 
niac, and  was  assassinated,  after  a reign  of  nine  months, 
by  order  of  his  own  Privy  Council.  Drunkenness  is  con- 
sidered a European  fashion,  and  in  spite  of  the  grief  of 
the  native  authorities,  “ this  crying  injury  to  a perishing 
people  remains  unredressed  and  unheeded  by  the  most 
humane  and  Christian  nation  in  the  world.  The  same 
story  may  be  told,  with  very  slight  variation  of  detail, 
of  all  the  native  tribes  on  the  east  African  seaboard.  . . . 
Tempted  by  greed  and  avarice,  white  traders  introduced 
the  cheap  rum  of  Mauritius.  Souls  of  men  were  bartered 
for  money,  and  Africa  is  still  being  slowly  but  surely  deso- 
lated by  the  foremost  missionary  nation  in  the  world.”  * 

4.  Turning  to  Western  Africa  we  have  a flood  of  evi- 
dence of  the  ghastly  ruin  which  we  are  causing  by  our 
drink  trade. 

The  Rev.  H.  Waller  makes  the  following  remarks : 


“ For  generations  the  West  Coast  negro  has  been  accustomed 
to  see  the  ocean  cast  up  the  powder-keg,  the  rum-cask,  and  the 
demijohn — these  have  been  the  shells  of  his  strand.  Borne  from 
Bristol,  Liverpool,  Hamburg,  and  Holland,  they  come  rolling 
through  the  surf  out  of  steamers  and  sailing  vessels. 

“ The  idea  of  drinking  spirits  is  inseparable  from  the  notion  of 
European  life  in  the  ken  of  the  native.” 

Gallons.  £ 

Great  Britain  sent  in  1884 602,328  value  117,143 

Germany  “ “ 7,136,263  “ 71 3,634 

Portugal  “ 1882 91,524  “ 6,166 

America  “ 1884-5 921,412  “ 56,889 


8,7  5L527  ^893,832 


The  Rev.  Hugh  Goldie,  missionary  for  nearly  forty 


* “ British  and  Colonial  Temperance  Congress,”  pp.  232-238. 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 


21 


years  in  Old  Calabar,  says  that  the  missionaries  every- 
where found  themselves  preceded  by  the  gin  bottle,  and 
that  “ half  of  the  expense  of  the  mission  in  money  and  life 
may  be  fairly  charged  to  the  account  of  the  drink  traffic ; 
while  it  continues  the  Church  cannot  hope  for  the  suc- 
cess at  which  she  aimed.” 

Writing  from  Sierra  Leone,  Mr.  Thomson  says : 

“ To  a man,  the  Kruboys  have  spent  years  in  contact  with  such 
ameliorating  influences  as  are  to  be  found  in  those  parts,  yet 
their  tastes  have  risen  no  higher  than  a desire  for  gin,  tobacco, 
and  gunpowder.  These  they  get  in  return  for  a few  months’  or 
a year’s  labor,  to  go  back  home,  and  for  a few  short  days  enjoy  a 
fiendish  holiday.  I visited  one  of  their  villages,  and  such  a scene 
of  squalor  and  misery  I have  rarely  seen.” 

And  again : 

“ In  West  Africa  our  influence  for  evil  enormously  counterbal- 
ances any  little  good  we  have  produced  by  our  contact  with 
Africa.” 

And  these  are  the  grave  and  simple  remarks  of  the  dis- 
tinguished native,  the  Rev.  James  Johnson: 

“ Now,  to  give  you  some  idea  of  the  amount  of  drink  that  is 
exported  from  this  country  to  West  Africa,  I would  just  instance 
Lagos.  Into  this  small  island  Europe  exports  every  year  an  av- 
erage of  about  1,231,302  gallons  of  spirits.  Out  of  that  quantity 
1,205,160  gallons  are  what  are  known  in  West  Africa  as  ‘trade 
rum  ’ and  ‘ trade  gin.’  The  town  of  Lagos  owns  a population  of 
37,000,  and  in  it  there  are  fifty  shops  where  liquors  are  dispensed 
to  the  37,000  inhabitants.  If  we  go  to  the  Niger,  there  are  about  250 
miles  of  coast-line  under  British  protection.  On  this  coast-line  the 
annual  consumption  of  drink  is  estimated  at  about  60,000  hogs- 
heads, each  hogshead  measuring  50  gallons.  You  have  now  an 
idea  of  the  terrible  flood  of  strong  drink  that  is  coming  into  Africa 
by  the  commerce  of  Europe.  That  would  be  sufficiently  serious 


22 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 


if  the  spirits  sold  to  these  people  were  sound  good  spirits,  but 
it  becomes  a much  more  serious  matter  when  you  come  to  think 
of  the  quality  of  the  stuff  that  is  dispensed.  The  Government 
of  Berlin  convened  a conference  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging 
the  extension  of  European  commerce,  and  with  it  the  drink  traffic, 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Africa.  I know  of  noth- 
ing that  brings  such  a reproach  upon  Christianity  and  upon  civ- 
ilization as  that.  This  conference  of  Christian  Powers  refused 
to  stop  that  trade.  What  is  the  quality  of  ,the  stuff  they  bring  ? 
It  is  the  vilest  manufacture  under  the  sun.  It  is  so  bad — the 
‘ trade  rum  * and  ‘ trade  gin  ’ — that  the  lowest  European  trader  on 
the  coast  would  never  drink  it  himself.  It  is  so  bad  that  in  West 
Africa  native  painters  have  used  it  instead  of  turpentine.  One 
kind  they  call  ‘ death  ’ itself,  because  every  one  who  drinks  it 
suffers  most  seriously ; the  other  kinds  are  just  as  dangerous,  as 
destructive,  and  as  ruinous,  only  they  do  their  work  more  slowly. 
It  has  a most  injurious  effect  upon  the  people ; it  weakens  the 
body,  it  debases  the  mind,  it  demoralizes  the  intellect,  and  it  feeds 
the  war  element  in  the  country.  There  has  been  no  peace  in 
Africa  for  centuries,  but  this  drink  traffic  makes  it  worse.  Why 
should  European  proximity  to  Africa  be  Africa’s  ruin?  Negroes 
have  proved  themselves  able  to  survive  the  evils  of  the  slave 
trade,  cruel  as  they  were  ; but  they  show  that  they  have  no  power 
whatever  to  withstand  the  terrible  evils  of  drink.  It  renders  the 
natural  increase  of  population  an  impossibility.  Imagine  this 
kind  of  spirit  being  spread  over  the  whole  country.  Surely  you 
must  see  that  the  death  of  the  negro  race  is  simply  a matter  of 
time.” 

After  such  evidence,  which  I have  been  obliged  greatly 
to  curtail,  no  one  can  doubt  that  the  drink  trade  is  as- 
sailing Africa,  to  its  utter  destruction,  from  every  quarter 
of  the  compass,  and  leaving  everywhere  its  baleful  mark, 
“as  uniform  as  the  movement  of  the  planets,  and  as 
deadly  as  the  sirocco  of  the  desert.”  Ought  we  not,  as 
Chatham  did,  to  call  upon  all  the  ministers  of  religion, 
of  every  denomination*,  to  perform  a lustration,  and 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 


23 


purify  their  country  from  this  stain  ? Or  is  it  too  late  ? 
And  does  the  voice  of  Judgment  say  to  us: 

“ Do  not  repent  these  things.  A thousand  knees, 

Ten  thousand  years  together,  naked,  fasting, 

Upon  a barren  mountain,  and  still  winter 
In  storm  perpetual,  could  not  move  the  gods 
To  look  that  way  thou  wert  ? ” 

And  there  are  two  considerations  suggested  by  the 
subject  to  which  I should  like  to  draw  special  attention. 

1.  One  is  the  aggravation  of  our  national  guilt  in  this 
matter  by  the  fact  that  even  these  helpless  races  have 
yet  found  a voice  to  express  their  entreaty  that  they  may 
be  delivered  from  the  alien  curse  inflicted  by  a contact 
which  they  did  not  seek,  and  which  is  destroying  them. 
“ We  are  verily  guilty  concerning  our  brother,  in  that 
we  saw  the  anguish  of  his  soul,  and  would  not  hear.” 

In  1883  the  natives  of  the  Diamond  Fields  implored 
the  Cape  Parliament  to  have  public-houses  removed 
from  them  for  a distance  of  six  miles,  and  their  petition 
was  cruelly  rejected.  The  Blue  Book  of  the  Cape  Com- 
mission abounds  with  their  entreaties. 

“ There  has  broken  out,”  says  Mr.  Waller,  “ not  only  in  one  or 
two,  but  in  several  densely  populated  tracts  of  Africa,  an  intense- 
desire  to  shake  off  the  drunkenness  which  has  arisen  as  a con- 
sequence of  contact  with  civilization.” 

King  Malikd,  the  Mohammedan  Emir  of  Nupd,  in- 
vokes, in  terms  of  touching  simplicity,  the  aid  of  Bishop 
Crowther : 

“ It  is  not  a long  matter ; it  is  about  barasa  (rum  or  gin).  Bara- 
sa, barasa,  barasa;  by  God  ! it  has  ruined  our  country-  it  has 
ruined  our  people  very  much ; it  has  made  our  people  become 
mad.  I have  given  a law  that  no  one  dares  buy  or  sell  it ; and 


24 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 


any  one  who  is  found  selling  it,  his  house  is  to  be  eaten  up  (plun- 
dered) ; any  one  found  drunk  will  be  killed.  I have  told  all  the 
Christian  traders  that  I agree  to  everything  for  trade  except  bara- 
sa. Tell  Crowther,  the  great  Christian  minister,  that  he  is  our 
father.  I beg  you,  Malam  Kipo  (Mr.  Paul),  don’t  forget  this 
writing,  because  we  all  beg  that  he  (Crowther)  should  beg  the 
great  priests  (Committee  C.  M.  S.)  that  they  should  beg  the  Eng- 
lish Queen  to  prevent  bringing  barasa  into  this  land. 

“ For  God  and  the  Prophet’s  sake ! For  God,  and  the  Prophet 
His  messenger’s  sake,  he  must  help  us  in  this  matter — that  of 
barasa  ! We  all  have  confidence  in  him.  He  must  not  leave  our 
country  to  become  spoiled  by  barasa.  Tell  him,  may  God  bless 
him  in  his  work.  This  is  the  mouth-word  from  Malike,  the  Emir 
of  Nupe.” 

“ It  is  not  only  the  teetotalers  of  Lagos,”  said  Mr. 
Johnson  in  the  Committee-room  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons ; “ it  is  the  leaders  of  the  people  who  are  calling 
out.” 

“ Their  kings  and  chiefs  had  endeavored,  by  their  own  laws,  to 
put  a stop  to  the  importation  of  this  drink,  yet  they  had  no  power 
over  their  people.  Men  and  women  and  children  all  drink.” 

2.  And  the  second  consideration  to  which  I would 
draw  attention  is,  that  the  drink  trade  is,  and  will  be, 
increasingly  fatal  to  every  other  branch  of  commerce. 
The  evidence  is  decisive  that  every  other  branch  of  trade 
will  be  sapped  and  blighted  to  feed  the  bloated  fungus 
of  hideous  prosperity  with  which  the  drink  trade  flour- 
ishes. 

“ It  was  thought,”  said  Mr.  Johnson,  “that  legitimate  com- 
merce would  correct  the  evils  of  the  slave  trade  in  a great  meas- 
ure, and  indeed  the  people  have  responded  to  the  efforts  made 
to  civilize  and  to  elevate  them.  As  you  travel  through  some  of 
the  interior  country,  your  eyes  rest  upon  miles  and  miles  of  land 
well  cultivated  ; and  as  you  stand  at  Lagos  you  can  see  fleets  of 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 


25 


canoes  laden  with  casks  of  palm-oil,  nuts,  and  other  produce. 
But  when  they  are  returning  home,  what  do  they  carry  away  with 
them  ? Very  few  pieces  of  cloth  ; every  one  of  them  is  laden 
with  rum  and  gin.  We  give  Europe  palm-oil  and  many  other 
useful  things ; but  what  does  she  give  us  in  return  ? This  vile  stuff ; 
this  spirit  which  sends  our  people  drunken  and  mad.  Surely 
you  will  agree  with  me  that,  in  the  interests  of  Christianity,  in 
the  interests  of  humanity,  something  should  be  done  to  stop  this 
evil.  What  is  the  action  of  the  Government  ? Because  on  the 
West  Coast  our  colonists  are  Crown  colonists — we  are  not  inde- 
pendent, we  are  ruled  from  England  practically — we  must  submit 
every  measure  to  the  Foreign  Office  here,  and  until  it  sanctions 
the  measure  it  cannot  be  carried.  What  is  the  action  of  the 
Government  toward  this  drink  traffic  ? It  is  not  indifference  ; it 
is  protection.  It  protects  the  trade.  We  have  appealed  to  the 
Government  to  help  us.  The  natives  of  the  interior  countries 
with  whom  we  trade  are  groaning  under  the  burden  of  this  drink. 
Kings  have  been  known  to  take  away  the  lives  of  their  subjects 
when  they  have  been  under  its  influence  ; but  our  efforts  meet 
with  no  success  from  the  Government.  Individuals  have  spoken 
to  the  Government,  but  the  difficulty  always  is — the  revenue  con- 
siderations will  not  allow  it.  It  is  a revenue  raised  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  lives  of  the  people ; a revenue  raised  at  the  expense 
of  the  lives  of  independent  tribes  with  whom  we  trade ; a rev- 
enue raised  at  the  price  of  blood.  We  appeal  to  other  Govern- 
ments, and  invite  them  to  come  to  our  aid.  They,  however, 
say : ‘ If  we  give  up  the  trade,  it  may  fall  into  the  hands  of 
others ; it  may  go  into  the  hands  of  Germany.’  A similar  point 
was  raised  with  regard  to  the  slave  trade,  but  William  Pitt  nobly 
said  it  was  our  only  duty  to  do  what  was  right  before  God  and 
man.  Now,  what  we  desire  is,  that  there  should  be  a lively  in- 
terest in  this  question,  and  that  the  British  Government  should 
be  petitioned  by  you  to  take  steps  to  suppress  this  traffic  in  West 
Africa,  and  free  the  people  from  the  burden  under  which  they 
now  live.” 

“ One  principal  cause  of  the  depression  of  trade,”  says  the 
Rev.  Hugh  Goldie,  “ existing  at  present  in  this  country  is  doubt- 
less, as  is  alleged,  the  vast  amount  of  money  spent  in  intoxicat- 


26 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 


ing  drink ; and  we  may  well  wonder  that  God  continues  to  clothe 
our  fields  with  harvests,  when  so  much  of  the  food  He  provides 
for  us  is  destroyed  and  converted  into  that  which  is  the  cause  of 
so  much  evil.  But  the  same  cause  operates  against  our  manu- 
facturing interest  throughout  the  world.  When  Africa  expends 
so  great  a part  of  the  product  of  its  industry  in  strong  drink,  it 
can  have  little  to  give  for  that  which  is  profitable  to  itself  or  to 
us.  A friend  mentioned  to  me  lately  that  a member  of  a Glas- 
gow firm  stated  to  him  that  he  formerly  employed  a large  num- 
ber of  looms  weaving  cloth  for  the  African  market ; now  he  has 
not  one.  A trader  in  the  Calabar  River  wrote  recently  to  his 
principals  to  send  no  more  cloth — drink  was  the  article  in  de- 
mand. Mr.  Joseph  Thomson,  in  his  recent  journey  into  the 
Niger  regions,  found  this  evil  so  abounding  therein,  that  it  will 
render  hopeless  the  demand,  anticipated  by  some,  by  the  natives, 
for  unlimited  supplies  of  calico,  as  effectually  as  will  the  sterility 
of  the  Eastern  countries  through  which  he  formerly  travelled. 
In  all  its  effects,  moral  and  economical,  this  traffic  is  only  evil : 
impeding  the  work  of  the  Church  at  home,  marring  her  mission 
work  abroad,  and  destroying  beneficial  industry.” 

Similar  is  the  evidence  of  the  Rev.  W.  Holman  Bent- 
ley, of  the  Baptist  Mission  : 

“ When  at  Loango  four  years  ago,  spirits  were  the  chief  article 
of  barter.  The  trader  with  whom  I was  staying  laughed  at  the 
idea  of  my  talking  to  the  chiefs  about  laborers  for  our  mission 
after  eleven  o’clock  in  the  morning.  He  said  that  the  principal 
men  would  be  drunk  at  that  hour. 

“ The  result  of  such  a state  of  things  cannot  be  favorable  to  any 
industry,  either  native  or  European,  except  to  a few  distillers. 
Such  natives  will  not  have  sufficient  energy  of  mind  and  body 
for  trading  expeditions  into  the  interior,  while  the  heavy  com- 
missions or  customs  levied  by  such  chiefs  discourage  the  native 
trader.  Sometimes  as  much  as  one-half,  or  at  least  one-third,  of 
the  payments  in  barter  is  put  aside  for  the  native  broker  from  the 
neighborhood  of  the  factory. 

“ Our  manufacturing  districts  ought  to  second  every  effort  to 
put  a stop  to  this  traffic,  which  fills  the  pockets  of  a few  distillers. 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 


27 


chiefly  German  and  Dutch,  while  all  legitimate  trade  and  manu- 
facture suffer  considerably  in  consequence." 

The  African  Lakes  Trading  Company,  officered  by 
Scotch  agents,  has  made  a noble  stand  against  this  curse. 
Mr.  Moir,  its  representative,  says : 

“ The  profits  on  the  sale  of  spirits  is  700  per  cent,  as  conducted 
by  some  of  the  European  houses.  I heard  it  all  figured  out  by 
one  of  themselves.  This  included  a pretty  liberal  addition  of 
water  to  some  of  the  fouler  liquid;  so  you  have  a very  hard 
enemy  to  fight.  I have  seen  boys  and  girls  of  about  fourteen  or 
fifteen  years  old  getting  their  wages  in  this  poison.” 

The  Committee  of  the  Baptist  Mission  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  European  traders,  who  have  firmly 
resisted  traffic  in  spirits,  have  been  driven,  in  consequence 
of  the  general  prevalence  of  such  barter,  to  abandon  their 
trade. 

In  face  of  such  facts  as  these,  the  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury might  well  say  in  his  sermon  on  May  2d  in  West- 
minster Abbey : 

“ It  is  a dread  commerce.  But  it  is  rather  an  anti-commerce. 
The  fear  of  it  and  the  dread  of  it  will  soon  be  upon  commerce 
itself.  If  we  have  long  seen  monopolies  to  be  a bar  and  obstruc- 
tion to  trade — if  we  have  found  that  to  put  a whole  trade  into 
the  hands  of  one  man  is  to  kill  trade — what  shall  we  say  of  a 
system  which,  in  the  name  of  freedom,  threatens  with  extinction 
all  trades  but  one  ? What  of  bales  of  goods  reshipped  because, 
in  the  drunken  population,  there  was  no  demand  but  for  drink — 
because  they  would  receive  nothing  else  in  barter — would  take 
no  other  wages  for  the  early  morning’s  work,  and  were  incapable 
when  the  early  morning  was  past  ? These,  and  darker  tales  than 
these,  are  the  depositions  of  eye-witnesses,  whom  we  have  no 
ground  to  mistrust,  or  even  suspect  of  exaggeration.  But  these 
surely  must  be  unexpected  results  of  the  foreign  diplomacy  which 


28 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade. 


insisted,  without  qualification,  on  ‘ the  interests  of  trade ' and 
* commercial  liberty.’  It  would  be  treason  to  our  neighbors  to 
suppose  that  such  results  were  foreseen — such  crippling  of  com- 
merce, such  disabling  of  industrial  energies  as  must  supervene.” 

“ Rum,”  as  Mr.  Waller  says,  “ is  in  more  senses  than 
one  the  skeleton-key  to  Africa  ” of  the  trade  in  liquor ; 
and  all  other  traders,  whose  articles  of  commerce  are 
harmless  or  beneficent,  may  feel  very  sure  that  the  drink- 
seller,  who  is  hardly  likely  to  be  more  tender  to  their 
interests  than  to  those  of  the  myriads  whom  he  is  now 
actively  helping  to  extirpate,  will  effectually  and  un- 
scrupulously lock  the  door  of  Africa  against  them,  until 
he  has  no  more  victims  left  to  slay ; a result  which  seems 
to  be  in  rapid  course  of  accomplishment.  Then  immoral 
traders — these  “ artists  in  human  slaughter,”  as  Lord 
Chesterfield  called  the  gin-distillers  a hundred  years  ago — 
will  look  out,  no  less  remorselessly,  for  other  dark  and 
helpless  races,  which  they  have  not  yet  wholly  extermi- 
nated— if  such  there  be — whom,  for  their  own  filthy 
lucre’s  sake,  they  may  demoralize  and  destroy.  For  they 
are  secure  in  our  mean  doctrines  of  political  expediency, 
secure  in  our  reckless  shibboleths  of  doctrinaire  finance 
and  abhorrent  liberty  ; and  all  the  while,  such  is  the 
capability  of  self-sophistication  by  the  human  conscience, 
they  will  persuade  themselves,  and  others  will  persuade 
them,  that  they  are  excellent  philanthropists  and  exem- 
plary Christian  men ! 

Mr.  Joseph  Thomson,  who  speaks  with  all  the  author- 
ity of  an  eye-witness,  said  in  this  Review  last  Decem- 
ber, that  “ for  any  African  who  is  influenced  for  good  by 
Christianity,  a thousand  are  driven  into  deeper  degrada- 
tion by  the  gin  trade  ”;  and  that  “ Mohammedan  mission- 
aries are  throwing  down  the  gage  to  Christianity,  and 


Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade . 


29 


declaring  war  upon  our  chief  contribution  to  Western 
Africa — the  gin  trade.” 

And  this  is  the  way  in  which  we  are  teaching  “ the 
Morians  land  ” to  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God ! 

My  odious  task  is  finished.  If  these  facts  have  no 
weight  on  the  minds  and  consciences  of  our  rulers  and 
legislators,  those  consciences  must  indeed  be  callous  be- 
yond reprieve.  Are  we  so  wholly  given  up  to  the  idol- 
atry of  the  two  brazen  idols  of  spurious  liberty  and 
economical  laissez-faire  as  to  bear  contentedly  the 
weight  of  this  infamy  and  this  guilt  ? Are  we  content 
to  be  represented  to  the  minds  of  savages  by  our  worst 
and  greediest  sons?  A nation  may  for  a time  sin  in 
ignorance.  It  may  be  for  a time  unaware  of  the  nefari- 
ous trade  to  which  its  least  worthy  representatives  offer 
a holocaust  of  tribes  and  nations,  passing  them  through 
the  fire  to  a demon  even  viler  than  Moloch,  the  abomi- 
nation of  the  children  of  Ammon.  But  England  can 
plead  ignorance  no  longer.  If  she  continue  to  dabble 
her  hand  in  blood,  if  she  continue  to  be  liable  to  the 
“ deep  damnation  ” of  taking  off  these  dark  races,  does 
she  think  to  be  acquitted  at  the  awful  bar  of  God  by 
mumbling  the  shibboleths  of  “ free  trade”  or  “vested 
interest”?  If  so,  let  her  not  be  deceived.  The  “sword 
bathed  in  heaven  ” is  not  in  haste  to  strike ; but  when 
the  hour  for  just  retribution  has  come,  it  is  apt  “ to  smite 
once,  and  smite  no  more.” 


FREE  RUM  ON  THE  CONGO. 


(A  Letter  to  the  “ New  York  Tribune ,”  from  the  Author 
of  “ Two  Years  in  a fungle .”) 

CRIMES  COMMITTED  IN  THE  NAME  OF  COMMERCE— A 
BLOT  UPON  CHRISTIAN  CIVILIZATION. 

To  the  average  mind,  the  utter  indifference  of  both 
Church  and  State  to  what  the  rum-sellers  are  doing  in 
Africa  is  truly  appalling.  When  we  think  of  the  in- 
fluence and  power  wielded  by  both  these  great  social 
factors,  and  the  quality  of  the  intelligence  which  directs 
them,  it  seems  incredible  that  such  gigantic  evils  should 
be  allowed  right  of  way.  The  Christian  world  holds  the 
Dark  Continent  in  trust.  It  has  voluntarily  assumed  the 
guardianship  of  the  African  negro,  and  drawn  around 
him  the  cordon  of  civilization.  It  proposes  to  give  him 
commerce,  religion,  law,  and  education.  The  trader  and 
the  missionary  are  engaged  in  a race  for  his  “ develop- 
ment,” while  civilization  looks  on  and  congratulates 
itself  on  the  grand  work  that  is  being  done  for  the  en- 
lightenment of  benighted  Africa.  The  commercial  world 
in  particular  is  dazzled  by  talk  of  steamer  lines,  railways, 
“ stations,”  “factories,”  and  “trade,”  while  the  religious 
world  thinks  of  missionaries,  converts,  and  education. 
The  surface  of  the  subject  has  been  stirred  into  a per- 
fect froth  of  excitement  over  what  has  already  been  ac- 
complished, and  what  is  to  be  in  the  near  future.  Let 
us  see  what  lies  under  the  foam.  Brandy,  gin,  rum, 
whiskey,  alcohol,  and  wholesale  drunkenness  lie  under 
30) 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo . 


3i 


it ; that  is  all.  A nest  of  poisonous  serpents,  “ more 
deadly  than  the  serpent  of  the  Nile,”  and  who  have 
placed  their  deadly  fangs  within  striking  distance  of  the 
negro.  The  commerce  of  our  boasted  nineteenth  cen- 
tury civilization,  and  neither  the  State  nor  the  Church 
stretches  forth  a strong  hand  to  stop  the  devilish  work 
that  “ commerce  ” is  doing.  Think  you  the  figure  is 
overdrawn  ? If  so,  read  on,  and  study  the  character  of 
the  message  the  European  pioneer  carries  to  the  negro. 

Those  who  read  the  Tribune  of  January  24th  must  have 
noticed  the  following  item  of  telegraphic  news  from 
Berlin,  dated  the  previous  day : * 

In  the  discussion  in  the  Reichstag  on  the  Cameroon  credits, 
Herren  Windthorst,  Richter,  and  Stoecker,  charged  Herr  Woer- 
man,  deputy  for  Hamburg,  and  the  chief  of  a large  exporting 
house,  with  sending  poisonous  brandy  to  the  negroes  in  Africa. 
Herr  Woerman  acknowledged  that  the  charge  was  partly  true. 
He  said,  however,  that  he  had  never  sent  bad  brandy  to  any  of 
the  German  colonies,  but  to  the  French  colonies.  To  these  he 
had  shipped  rum  of  the  worst  quality. 

Herr  Woerman’s  highly  conscientious  discrimination 
in  favor  of  the  German  colonies  will  doubtless  be  highly 
appreciated  in  France. 

This  is  what  Joseph  Thompson  saw  “ Up  the  Niger,” 
as  related  in  the  January  number  of  Good  Words  : 

At  each  port  of  call,  the  eye  becomes  bewildered  in  watching 
the  discharge  of  thousands  of  cases  of  gin,  hundreds  of  demi- 
johns of  rum,  box  upon  box  of  guns,  untold  kegs  of  gunpowder, 
and  myriads  of  clay  pipes,  while  it  seems  as  if  only  by  accident 
a stray  bale  of  cloth  went  over  the  side. 

On  the  Congo,  bottles  of  gin  constitute  the  principal 
medium  of  currency  in  dealing  with  the  natives.  The 


32 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo. 


following  paragraph  is  from  the  report  of  Mr.  W.  P. 
Tisdel,  special  agent  of  the  United  States  to  the  Congo, 
as  it  appears  in  Consular  Reports  Nos.  54  and  55,  De- 
partment of  State : 

....  Of  this  variegated  currency,  gin  is  tne  most  valuable ; 
indeed,  it  may  be  truly  said,  “ it  is  worth  its  weight  in  gold.” 
. . . . Unfortunately,  a few  bottles  of  trade  gin  will  go  much 
further  in  trade  with  the  natives  than  ten  times  its  value  in 
cloth ; and  it  often  happens  that  traders  are  compelled  to  return 
to  the  coast  without  having  accomplished  a trade,  because  the 
natives  insist  upon  having  gin,  while  the  trader  was  supplied  with 
cloth  alone.  A native  man  can  be  induced  to  work  at  a factory 
for  one  or  two  days  at  a time  upon  the  assurance  that  he  can  at 
the  expiration  of  that  time  have  a bottle  or  two  of  gin,  whereas, 
if  you  offer  him  a piece  of  cloth,  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  would 
work  at  all. 

Here  is  a bit  of  testimony  which  shows  what  New 
England  is  doing  to  help  the  cause  along.  The  super- 
intendent of  Lutheran  missions  in  West  Africa  writes  as 
follows : 

The  vilest  liquors  imaginable  are  being  poured  into  Africa  in 
shiploads  from  almost  every  quarter  of  the  civilized  world.  On 
one  small  vessel,  in  which  myself  and  wife  were  the  only  passen- 
gers, there  were  in  the  hold  over  100,000  gallons  of  New  England 
rum,  which  sold  on  the  coast  for  $1  a gallon  in  exchange  for  palm- 
oil,  rubber,  camwood,  and  other  products  common  to  the  country. 
I have  seen  landed  from  one  steamer  at  a single  port  10,000  cases 
of  gin,  each  containing  twelve  three-pint  bottles. 

The  next  witness  shall  be  no  less  a man  than  the 
founder  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  In  Stanley’s  “ Congo,” 
vol.  1,  p.  193,  he  writes  as  follows: 

Gin  is  used  as  currency Gin  and  rum  are  also  largely 

consumed  as  grog  by  our  native  workmen.  We  dilute  both 


Free  Rum  cn  the  Congo . 


33 


largely,  but  we  are  compelled  to  serve  it  out  morning  and  even- 
ing. A stoppage  of  this  would  be  followed  by  a cessation  of 
work.  It  is  “ custom  custom  is  despotic,  and  we  are  too  weak 
and  too  new  in  the  country  to  rebel  against  custom.  If  we  resist 
custom,  we  shall  be  abandoned.  Every  visitor  to  our  camp  on 
this  part  of  the  Congo  (the  lower),  if  he  has  a palaver  with  us, 
must  first  receive  a small  glass  of  rum  or  gin.  A chief  receives  a 
bottleful,  which  he  distributes,  teaspoonful  by  teaspoonful,  among 
his  followers.  This  is  the  Lower  Congo  idea  of  “ an  all-around 
drink.”  I see  by  the  returns  of  the  station  chief  that  we  con- 
sume 125  gallons  of  rum  monthly  by  distributing  grog  rations, 
and  native  demands  for  it  in  lieu  of  a portion  of  their  wages. 

I have  reserved  the  most  important  testimony  until 
the  last.  It  is  that  of  Dr.  A.  Sims,  chief  of  the  Living- 
stone Island  Congo  Mission,  who  was  the  first  mission- 
ary to  navigate  the  waters  of  the  Upper  Congo,  and  has 
lately  returned  to  this  country  after  four  years’  work  in 
that  deadly  climate.  In  a recent  letter  to  the  writer  he 
furnishes  the  following  facts  : 

Besides  the  giving  of  rum  in  payment  for  goods  or  food  sup- 
plies, it  is  employed  in  a wholesale  way  as  presents.  The  traders 
keep  their  “ runners  ’’  on  the  roads  frequented  by  natives,  whom 
they  bribe  with  liquor  to  trade  only  with  their  masters.  The 
moment  natives  with  produce  arrive  in  a merchant’s  yard,  they 

are  liquored  all  round All  contracts,  dues,  and  ground 

rents  are  made  payable  more  than  half,  or,  as  is  often  the 
case,  wholly  in  demijohns  of  rum  and  cases  of  gin.  In  this 
the  Congo  Free  State  has  followed  the  example  set  by  the  mer- 
chants. Rum  is  now  carried  into  the  far  interior  by  natives  and 
retailed  at  a profit.  At  my  house,  325  miles  in  the  interior,  a 
bottle  of  Rotterdam  gin  has  been  offered  to  me  at  16  cents  (eight 
brass  rods),  and  a demijohn  at  $3.  At  that  place^aravans  of 
Bateke  and  Bakongo  continually  passed,  of  which  twenty-five 
men  out  of  every  hundred  would  be  loaded  with  intoxicating 
drinks.  From  such  sources  of  supply  I have  seen  many  natives 
and  soldiers  of  the  State  become  drunk  immediately  upon  the 


34 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo. 


arrival  of  a caravan.  It  is  pretty  certain  that  50  per  cent,  of  the 
returned  commerce  account  of  the  natives  who  live  near  the 
trading  houses  is  given  to  them  in  liquor.  At  Stanley  Pool  not 
more  than  25  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  their  goods  goes  back  to 
them  in  liquor,  but  that  is  because  of  the  distance.  Were  they 
living  near  a trader  they  would  be  hopelessly  drunken.  It  is  a 
sad  thought  that  where  five  years  ago  liquor  was  unknown  and 
never  asked  for,  the  natives  now  beg  for  it,  and  nothing  else  can 
better  ingratiate  one  into  their  favor.  As  for  the  kings  near  the 
seaside  trading  houses,  intoxication  is  about  their  normal  con- 
dition. When  I was  assisting  to  conduct  a mission  at  Bamana, 
the  port  of  the  Congo,  it  was  difficult  to  get  the  natives  to  as- 
semble in  a sober  state  on  Sabbath  morning. 

Now,  has  the  rum  traffic  on  the  Congo  become  an 
abuse  or  not?  The  Congo  Free-rum  State  took  its  place 
definitely  in  the  world  no  longer  ago  than  last  year,  and 
the  present  is  only  the  foreshadowing  of  the  future. 
With  bottles  of  gin  and  demijohns  of  rum  in  general 
use  as  currency,  and  fifty  per  cent,  of  what  the  natives 
produce  paid  for  with  liquor,  what  is  to  be  the  future  of 
the  Congo  native  ? It  is  time  for  him  to  bow  down 
to  the  unknown  God  and  pray,  “ Save  me  from  my 
friends ! ” Do  you  ask  who  are  the  promoters  of  this 
gigantic  evil,  and  the  particeps  criminis  in  the  matter? 
The  answer  is  easy.  There  are  two  sets  of  individuals 
implicated  in  the  crime  and  each  set  is  wholly  to  blame. 
It  is  a question  which  should  be  named  first,  the  rum- 
selling miscreants  who  are  doing  the  devil’s  work,  or  the 
statesmen  composing  the  Berlin  Conference  who  agreed 
to  allow  them  to  do  it.  On  the  whole,  I think  the  latter 
are  entitled  to  the  place  of  honor. 

When  the  representatives  of  fourteen  of  the  greatest 
and  most  enlightened  Powers  on  the  earth  met  at  Ber- 
lin in  the  winter  of  1884-85,  to  hold  the  great  West 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo . 


35 


African  Conference,  they  settled  definitely,  and  for  the 
next  twenty  years,  barring  accidents,  the  political  status 
of  all  the  territory  bordering  on  the  Congo.  They  held 
the  Congo  Free  State  in  their  hands,  and  shaped  its 
commercial  future  to  suit  themselves.  They  said  what 
it  should  do,  what  it  should  not  do,  and  what  the  sub- 
jects of  their  sovereigns  should  be  allowed  to  do  in  it. 
And  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega  of  all  their  deliberations 
was  “ trade,”  the  absolute  “ freedom  of  commerce,”  gain, 
national  and  individual  advantage  in  hard  cash.  Did 
the  members  of  that  august  assembly,  which  had  Prince 
Bismarck  for  its  president,  think  of  the  naked  savage 
in  his  grass  hut,  and  try  to  legislate  for  him?  Four 
only  out  of  the  fourteen  did  so,  and  I will  name  them  : 
The  Hon.  John  A.  Kasson,  representing  the  United 
States ; Count  de  Launay,  for  Italy ; Sir  Edward  B. 
Malet,  for  Great  Britain ; and  Count  van  der  Straten, 
for  Belgium.  To  the  everlasting  honor  of  these  gen- 
tlemen and  the  countries  they  represented,  they  pro- 
nounced strongly  in  favor  of  controlling  the  liquor 
traffic  on  the  Congo  and  the  Niger.  Indeed,  the  British 
plenipotentiary  proposed  to  prohibit  altogether  the  tran- 
sit of  spirituous  liquors  on  the  course  of  the  Lower 
Niger.  The  sentiments  expressed  by  the  Belgian  pleni- 
potentiary were  of  the  most  convincing  nature,  and  but 
for  the  demands  of  greedy  “ commerce,”  would  have 
been  irresistible.  Thus  runs  the  official  report  of  his 
remarks : 

He  related  with  emotion  how,  having  lived  in  the  midst  of 
Indian  populations,  in  contact  with  the  missionaries  who  strove 
to  impress  upon  them  the  seal  of  civilization,  he  attests  the  de- 
spair of  the  Christian  priests  who  witnessed  the  destruction  of 
the  Indian  race  by  succumbing  to  the  excesses  of  strong  drink. 


36 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo* 

Count  van  der  Straten  has  observed  in  the  American  plantations 
at  the  South  the  same  ravages  produced  by  alcohol  on  the  black 
race,  especially  those  who  inhabited  the  centre  of  Africa.  The 
Belgian  plenipotentiary  said  that  the  indigenous  races  of  the 
free  zone  must  be  sober,  or  soon  cease  to  exist.  There  was, 
moreover,  a difference  between  the  effects  produced  by  alcohol- 
ism upon  the  Indian  races  on  the  one  part,  and  the  African  races 
on  the  other.  The  negro  does  not  yield  physically  to  drunken- 
ness ; he  succumbs  morally.  If  the  Powers  do  not  save  him 
from  this  vice,  they  will  make  of  him  a monster  who  will  destroy 
the  w'ork  of  the  Conference. 

Mr.  Kasson  declared  it  indispensable  to  control  the 
traffic  in  spirituous  liquors,  in  the  interest  of  humanity ; 
and  the  Count  de  Launay,  who  was  the  first  to  propose 
this  measure  at  a very  early  stage  of  the  deliberations, 
was  also  its  champion  to  the  last. 

So  far,  good ; but  mark  well  what  follows.  The  rep- 
resentatives of  Germany  and  Holland  objected  to  the 
placing  of  any  restriction  upon  the  rum  traffic,  for  the 
reason  that  rum  is  used  as  currency,  and  without  it  com* 
merce  would  suffer.  To  the  everlasting  disgrace  of  those 
two  countries,  their  plenipotentiaries  succeeded  in  de- 
feating the  Count  de  Launay’s  measure.  In  this  con- 
nection  it  should  be  stated  that  Herr  Woerman,  the  ship* 
per  of  poisonous  rum,  was  present  at  the  conference  as 
a delegate,  and  he,  more  than  any  other  one  person,  was 
instrumental  in  shaping  its  final  action  on  the  liquor 
question.  Unfortunately,  the  conference  was  so  consti. 
tuted  that  no  measure  could  be  adopted  without  a unani- 
mous vote  of  the  whole  fourteen  plenipotentiaries.  Thus 
were  the  demands  of  the  rum-seller,  and  the  meanest 
rum-seller  of  them  all,  allowed  to  triumph  over  the  sa- 
cred rights  of  humanity.  Thus  did  the  high-minded 
apostles  of  Saint  Commerce  perpetuate  their  right  to 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo. 


37 


ship  “ rum  of  the  worst  quality  ” to  Africans,  and  sink 
them  into  still  blacker  darkness  by  making  drunkards 
of  them.  Send  missionaries  there  if  you  wish,  ye 
churches — aye,  send  them  by  the  shipload  if  you  like  ; 
but  they  shall  not  avail  against  Herr  Woerman  and  free 
gin.  There  are  about  50,000,000  people  in  the  basin  of 
the  Congo,  and  it  is  a race  with  the  traders  to  see  who 
will  distribute  the  most  and  the  worst  rum  among  them. 
Gin  can  go  where  missionaries  cannot ; and  I will  back 
it  against  the  Gospel  every  time. 

Here  is  the  “ proposition  ” finally  adopted  by  the  con- 
ference respecting  the  rum  traffic.  It  is  an  invertebrate 
of  a very  low  order,  having  neither  teeth,  legs,  nor  back- 
bone: 

The  Powers  represented  at  the  conference,  desiring  that  the 
indigenous  populations  may  be  guarded  against  the  evils  arising 
from  the  abuse  of  strong  drinks,  avow  their  wish  that  an  agree- 
ment may  be  established  between  them  to  regulate  the  difficul- 
ties which  might  arise  on  this  subject,  in  such  a manner  as  to 
conciliate  the  rights  of  humanity  with  the  interests  of  commerce, 
in  so  far  as  these  interests  may  be  legitimate. 

And  this  after  it  has  already  been  agreed  most  posi- 
tively and  beyond  a peradventure  that  commerce  and 
navigation  shall  be  absolutely  free,  excepting  for  pilot- 
age and  port  dues  on  vessels.  This  “ proposition  ” merely 
says : “ I really  wish  I could,  but  I can’t.  Be  ye  warmed 
and  fed,  but  keep  hands  off  my  precious  commerce ! ” 
Of  all  the  subterfuges  that  were  ever  adopted  to  escape 
a great  responsibility,  and  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  it  seems  to  me  this  is  the  most  paltry  and  inex- 
cusable. On  the  part  of  some  of  the  plenipotentiaries 
there  was  not  too  much  courtesy,  and  not  enough  firm- 


38 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo. 


ness  ; while  on  the  part  of  the  remainder  there  was  a con- 
spicuous lack  of  honesty  and  humanity,  joined  to  inor- 
dinate selfishness  and  greed.  If  ever  a set  of  men  failed 
in  the  discharge  of  their  duty,  were  false  to  their  trust 
and  deliberately  fostered  a gigantic  evil,  it  was  those 
members  of  the  Berlin  Conference  who  insisted  upon 
free  trade  in  rum  on  the  Congo.  It  is  a sickening  sight 
to  see  a great  nation  like  Germany,  so  fiercely  vigilant 
in  shielding  her  own  subjects  against  all  harm  from 
without,  pander  to  the  demands  of  her  rum  exporters 
for  the  privilege  of  debasing  the  blacks  past  all  hope  of 
rescue. 

Oh,  commerce  ! How  many  crimes  are  committed  in 
thy  name.  Trade  is  the  new  Moloch  on  whose  altar 
millions  of  victims  are  sacrificed  annually.  It  was  even 
Christian  England  who  opened  with  her  bayonets  the  sea- 
ports of  China  for  the  sale  of  the  opium  wh$ch  her  Anglo- 
Indian  planters  produced.  When  “ trade  ” demands 
fresh  victims,  they  must  be  produced,  even  though  it 
requires  the  hand  of  a statesman  or  a sovereign  to  lead 
them  forth.  So  long  as  statesmen  bow  meekly  before 
the  power  which  is  wielded  by  the  promoters  of  vice, 
just  so  long  will  vice  be  promoted  and  the  devil’s  harvest 
be  reaped  day  by  day. 

Just  so  long  as  rum  may  be  sold  in  Africa  without  let 
or  hindrance  by  whomsoever  can  send  it  there,  just  so 
long  will  there  be  unprincipled  merchants  to  ship  it  and 
retail  it  among  the  natives.  If  the  natives  had  happened 
to  prefer  opium  or  arsenic,  why,  then,  opium  and  arsenic 
would  now  be  used  as  currency  instead  of  gin.  Every 
country  has  a grand  army  of  unhanged  liquor-sellers,  any 
one  of  whom,  for  the  sake  of  “ business  ” and  a profit  of 
three  cents,  will  sell  a glass  of  liquor  with  the  knowledge 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo.  39 

that  it  will  send  its  purchaser  into  the  gutter  the  next 
moment. 

All  men  who  are  mean  enough  to  promote  vice  for 
money  deserve  to  be  hanged,  or  else  put  where  they  can 
prey  only  upon  each  other.  It  is  bad  enough  for  one 
educated  European  to  sell  intoxicants  to  another ; but 
what  shall  we  say  of  the  intelligent  white  man  who  sows 
drunkenness,  disease,  degradation,  and  death  broadcast 
among  the  ignorant  blacks,  who,  like  so  many  children 
in  knowledge,  are  just  emerging  from  savagery.  Since 
these  murderers  of  morals  are  without  conscience,  their 
depredations  should  be  limited  by  law,  even  if  all  the 
rest  of  this  great  world  has  not  the  power  to  suppress 
them  entirely.  A few  months  ago  I published  the  ob- 
servation that  “ savage  tribes  deteriorate  morally,  physi- 
cally, and  numerically  according  to  the  degree  in  which 
they  are  influenced  by  civilization.”  This  opinion  was 
sneered  at  by  some  of  my  reviewers  as  being  “ somewhat 
crude,”  and  by  one  ( The  London  Daily  News)  I was  in- 
formed that  “ it  is  the  triumph  of  civilization  to  protect 
the  weak  against  the  strong.”  Let  me  ask  who  is  pro- 
tecting the  weak  against  the  strong  to-day  on  the  Congo 
and  the  Niger,  and  in  South  Africa  ? Here  is  a case  in 
point  from  Dr.  Emil  Holub’s  “ Seven  Years  in  South 
Africa,”  which  will  serve  to  point  my  moral,  even  though 
it  does  not  adorn  a tale. 

Khame,  the  King  of  the  Bamangwatos,  had  passed  a 
law  that  no  liquor  should  be  sold  in  his  territory,  under 
heavy  penalty,  and  also  that  no  trader  having  liquor  in 
his  possession  for  sale  should  enter  his  kingdom,  nor 
even  be  permitted  to  pass  through  any  portion  of  it. 
Just  at  the  time  of  Dr.  Holub’s  visit,  along  came  an 
English  trader,  Mr.  “ X.,”  who  smuggled  several  casks 


40 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo . 


of  alcohol  into  the  territory, — “ atrocious  stuff  ” which 
“ completely  overpowered  Westbeech,”  and  enabled  the 
worthy  trader  to  swindle  him  in  regulation  style.  Being 
detected,  “ X.”  was  ordered  out  of  the  country.  After 
trekking  a short  distance  he  buried  his  alcohol,  returned, 
“ lied  atrociously  ” to  the  King  about  it,  and  afterward 
sold  it  to  the  King’s  subjects.  Finally  his  perfidy  was 
discovered  and  he  fled ; but  the  King’s  soldiers  hunted 
him  down  and  captured  him.  At  Shoshong,  the  capital, 
Dr.  Holub  saw  the  excellent  “ X.”  fined  £100  for  break- 
ing the  law,  and  formally  expelled  from  the  territory  as 
a dangerous  character.  “ At  the  same  sitting  the  King 
fined  two  traders’  agents  £\o  apiece  for  being  drunk 
outside  their  quarters,  in  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  tell- 
ing them  that  if  they  were  determined  to  drink  they 
must  confine  themselves  to  their  own  wagons ; he,  for 
his  part,  was  quite  resolved  that  they  should  not  make 
an  exhibition  of  themselves  before  his  subjects.” 

What  a pitiful  spectacle  is  this,  of  an  ignorant  African 
savage  struggling  with  intelligent  European  Christians 
(!)  to  save  his  people  from  the  horrors  of  intemperance, 
a vice  thrust  upon  him  by  civilization.  Have  the  law- 
makers of  Cape  Colony  and  Natal  ever  forbidden  the 
importation  of  “atrocious  stuff”  and  placed  a penalty 
on  its  sale  to  natives?  Tell  us,  my  worthy  reviewer, 
how  much  has  civilization  protected  “ the  weak  against 
the  strong”  drink  of  the  trader,  all  the  world  over.  Tell 
us  also  who  is  going  to  protect  the  people  of  the  Congo 
against  Herr  Woerman.  Will  it  be  the  Society  for  the 
Protection  of  the  Aborigines?  Surely  it  ought  to  do 
something.  We  remember  well  the  outcry  it  made,  and 
how  it  “ attracted  Lord  Derby’s  attention  ” in  1876  when 
brave  Stanley  shot  a few  bloodthirsty  savages  in  pure 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo. 


4i 


self-defence  on  the  Victoria  Nyanza ; and  surely,  to  de- 
stroy a few  bodies  by  bullets  in  a moment’s  time  is  not 
half  so  bad  as  to  destroy  millions  by  intemperance. 

Something  must  be  done  at  once,  if  ever,  to  stop  the 
flow  of  intoxicants  into  Africa  and  among  the  natives. 
It  is  a herculean  task,  but  if  the  political  forces  which 
brought  the  Congo  Free  State  into  existence,  combined 
with  those  of  the  Church  and  the  advocates  of  temper- 
ance, are  not  sufficient  to  put  a quietus  upon  this  rum 
traffic,  then  let  Europe  and’  America  acknowledge  with 
shame  that  rum  is  king.  If  the  Church  has  more  mis- 
sionaries, let  some  of  them  be  sent  to  Herr  Woerman 
and  others  of  his  kind  in  Germany  and  Holland,  Eng- 
land or  America,  or  wherever  they  are  to  be  found.  Save 
the  black  man  from  his  friends, — those  who  would  make 
his  country  free  and  accessible  at  all  points  to  the  boats 
and  caravans  of  the  gin  peddler. 

“ How  long,  O Lord ! how  long  ” will  it  be  until  civil- 
ized man  acquires  humanity  enough  to  voluntarily  ab- 
stain from  the  promotion  of  vice  and  self-destruction 
amongst  the  ignorant  savages  of  the  world  at  large? 
Will  the  time  ever  come  when  a human  being  will  weigh 
more  in  the  balances  of  the  trader  than  a paltry  sixpence  ? 
It  will  be  no  child’s  play  to  enact  laws  for  the  suppression 
of  the  liquor  traffic  on  the  Congo,  and  enforce  them.  If 
any  permanent  good  is  to  be  accomplished,  there  must 
be  no  temporizing,  no  making  of  terms  with  the  devil, 
nor  half-way  measures  of  any  kind.  Any  laws  for  the 
“regulation”  of  the  traffic  are  sure  to  be  evaded.  No- 
thing short  of  absolute  and  unconditional  suppression  of 
the  importation  of  intoxicants  will  ever  reach  the  root 
of  the  evil.  “ But,”  the  trader  will  cry  out,  “ that  can- 
not be  done  without  granting  the  local  authorities  the 


42 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo. 


right  to  search  all  vessels.’ * Very  well,  then  let  them  be 
searched  from  stem  to  stern,  from  deck  to  keelson,  and 
whenever  liquors  are  found  pour  them  into  the  Congo 
instantly.  “ It  will  cripple  commerce,”  whines  the  trader 
again,  “ and  prevent  the  development  of  the  country.” 
We  reply,  commerce  that  can  live  and  thrive  only  by 
the  promotion  of  vice  amongst  an  aboriginal  race  de- 
serves to  be  strangled  in  its  cradle.  As  matters  stand  at 
present,  the  “ development  of  Africa  ” of  which  we  hear 
so  much,  when  stripped  of  its  false  colors,  means  simply 
the  enrichment  of  a few  European  traders  and  manufac- 
turers at  the  cost  of  the  moral  degradation  of  fifty  mill- 
ion natives.  Not  even  the  slave  trade  has  ever  done  so 
much  harm  to  the  Congo  blacks  as  intemperance  bids 
fair  to  do,  and  that  right  speedily. 

Savage  tribes  accept  the  virtues  of  civilization  at  re- 
tail, but  its  vices  are  generally  taken  by  wholesale,  and 
for  the  latter  the  demand  is  very  often  greater  than  the 
supply.  This  is  precisely  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  Con- 
go to-day.  From  all  accounts  no  aborigines  have  ever 
shown  such  a universal  passion  for  strong  drink  as  pos- 
sesses these  people.  If  liquor  can  be  kept  away  from 
them,  there  is  room  for  hope  that  the  missionaries  can 
bring  them  into  the  light,  and  make  civilization  a bless- 
ing to  them  instead  of  a curse.  Who  are  the  most 
powerful,  the  traders  who  desire  to  get  rich  out  of  palm- 
oil  and  India  rubber  purchased  with  gin,  or  the  fourteen 
Christian  nations  participating  in  the  Conference,  with 
their  388  millions  of  Christians?  America  has  sixty-five 
foreign  missionary  societies,  England  seventy-one,  and 
the  Continent  fifty-seven  exclusive  of  those  of  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church.  Are  they  powerful  enough  to 
cope  with  the  rum  traffic  on  the  Congo?  Herr  Woer- 


Free  Rum  on  the  Congo . 


43 


man  and  his  colleagues  have  cut  out  work  for  them,  and 
it  will  require  all  the  combined  influence  they  can  mus- 
ter to  persuade  Germany  and  Holland  to  allow  the  rest 
of  the  Christian  world  to  enforce  temperance  on  the 
Congo.  The  rights  of  the  money-makers  are  so  sacred, 
you  know. 

Will  the  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  try  to  save  the 
tree  by  doctoring  its  leaves,  one  by  one,  while  the  sap  is 
being  poisoned  in  the  roots?  We  will  see. 

William  T.  Hornaday. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  July  io,  1886. , 


THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  WITH  NATIVE 
RACES. 


The  following  letter  from  the  two  Archbishops  and 
the  Bishop  of  London  has  been  posted  to  the  bishops 
of  the  British  colonies  and  dependencies  : — 

“ Lambeth  Palace,  S.  E.,  August , 1887. 

“ My  Lord  : — The  attention  of  the  Church  has  been 
recently  drawn  to  the  widespread  and  still  growing  evils 
caused  by  the  introduction  of  intoxicating  liquors  among 
the  native  races  in  the  colonies  and  dependencies  of  the 
British  Empire,  and  in  other  countries  to  which  British 
trade  has  access. 

“ Part  of  the  mischief  is  certainly  due  to  other  traders 
than  the  British,  but  British  trade,  as  exceeding  in 
volume  that  of  many  other  countries  put  together,  is 
mainly  responsible. 

“ This  mischief  cannot  be  measured  by  what  we  wit- 
ness among  our  own  countrymen.  The  intemperance 
is  far  greater ; the  evils  consequent  on  intemperance  are 
far  worse.  Uncivilized  people  are  weaker  to  resist,  and 
are  utterly  unable  to  control  temptations  of  this  kind. 
The  accounts  given  of  the  numbers  that  perish  from 
this  cause  and  of  the  misery  and  degradation  of  those 
who  survive  are  painful  in  the  extreme. 

“ And,  besides  the  grievous  wrong  thus  inflicted  on 
the  native  races,  reproach  has  been  brought  on  the  name 
of  Christ.  The  English  missionary  who  preaches  the  Gos- 
pel, and  the  English  merchant  who  brings  the  fatal 
temptation,  are  inevitably  associated  in  the  minds  of 
(44) 


The  Liquor  Traffic  with  Native  Races.  45 

the  heathen  people,  and  by  many  not  only  associated, 
but  identified. 

“ It  is  asserted  by  travellers  of  repute  that  in  many 
parts  of  the  world,  the  moral  character  of  the  natives 
gains  more  by  the  preaching  of  Mohammedanism  than 
by  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  for  the  former  tends  to 
make  them  sober. 

“ The  evils  of  intemperance  in  the  British  islands 
have,  as  you  are  well  aware,  long  engaged  the  attention 
of  the  Church  at  home.  The  report  of  the  Lower  House 
of  Convocation  of  the  Province  of  Canterbury  in  1869, 
and  that  of  the  Province  of  York  in  1873,  in  each 
of  which  a large  mass  of  evidence  from  every  class  of 
society  was  got  together,  had  a painful  effect  on  the 
public  mind  at  the  time,  and  they  have  served  as  trust- 
worthy manuals  on  the  subject  ever  since. 

“The  formation  of  the  Church  of  England  Temper- 
ance Society  has  organized  and  concentrated  the  efforts 
of  those  Churchmen  who  have  been  deeply  impressed 
with  the  necessity  of  combating  intemperance,  and  that 
society  is  daily  growing  in  numbers  and  in  influence. 
Owing  to  these  and  similar  endeavors  made  by  both 
Churchmen  and  nonconformists,  drunkenness  has  been 
and  is  still  being  diminished  in  these  islands.  And  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  before  long  public  opinion 
will  demand  of  the  Legislature  that  steps  should  be 
taken  to  remove,  wholly  or  partially,  the  temptations 
which  now  make  it  so  difficult  for  weak  men  to  lead 
sober  lives. 

“ It  is  not  for  us  nor  for  the  bishops  at  home  to  sug- 
gest to  your  lordship  or  your  clergy  the  best  means  for 
dealing  with  similar  evils  in  our  colonies  and  depend- 
encies, and  in  the  heathen  countries  in  your  own  part  of 


46  Prohibition  in  the  Congo  Country. 

the  world.  But  we  have  felt  it  our  duty  to  bring  to 
your  notice  the  painful  accounts  that  have  reached  us, 
and  to  assure  you  of  our  warmest  and  most  earnest  sym- 
pathy with  any  efforts  that  you  may  see  fit  to  make  to 
deal  with  the  serious  difficulty.  You  may  have  the 
means  of  influencing  your  Legislature ; you  may  do 
much  to  form  public  opinion ; you  can  at  least  make  it 
plain  to  all  men  that  the  Church  is  not  and  never  can 
be  indifferent  to  this  great  sin. 

“ In  whatever  you  may  be  able  to  do  in  this  matter, 
you  may  be  assured  that  the  bishops  at  home  are  sup- 
porting your  action  with  their  earnest  prayers,  and, 
where  co-operation  is  found  possible,  with  their  most 
hearty  co-operation. 

“ Edw.  Cantuar. 

“ W.  Ebor. 

“ F.  Londin.” 


PROHIBITION  IN  THE  CONGO  COUNTRY. 

The  Board  of  Managers,  at  a meeting  held  the  20th 
of  January,  1885,  adopted  the  following  in  relation  to 
prohibition  in  the  Congo  country : 

“The  National  Temperance  Society  has  heard  with  profound 
gratitude  of  the  action  proposed  by  the  International  Conference 
at  Berlin  prohibiting  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors  on  land  or  water  in  the  Congo  country.  We  are  the 
more  gratified  that  this  action  is  understood  to  have  been  initi- 
ated by  our  own  representatives. 

“ In  the  interest  of  the  millions  of  Africa,  that  they  may  be 
preserved  from  the  curse  of  drunkenness,  and  in  the  name  of 
millions  of  citizens  in  our  own  country  who  value  sobriety  as  an 
essential  factor  in  good  citizenship,  we  do  most  earnestly  plead 


Prohibition  in  the  Congo  Country. 


47 


for  humanity’s  sake  that  the  high  stand  thus  taken  be  not  re- 
tired from  or  materially  modified.” 

This  was  officially  signed  and  duly  forwarded  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States  and  to  Mr.  Kasson, 
American  Minister  at  Berlin.  We  regret  to  say  that 
the  Berlin  Conference  did  not  adhere  to  their  first  pur- 
pose. They  excluded  slavery,  but  refused  to  exclude 
opium  or  liquors,  because  it  would  interfere  with  the 
freedom  of  trade.  The  following  extract  is  from  the 
treaty : 

“ Wares  of  whatever  origin,  imported  under  whatsoever  flag,  by 
sea  or  by  land,  shall  be  subject  to  no  other  taxes  than  such  as 
may  be  levied  as  fair  compensation  for  expenditure  in  the  inter- 
ests of  trade.” 

It  was  declared  by  a Boston  paper  that  the  largest 
single  shipment  of  rum  ever  made  from  America  was  in 
a vessel  carrying  nothing  else,  and  sent  from  Massachu- 
setts direct  to  the  Congo  country.  A London  corre- 
spondent, commenting  upon  the  proceedings  of  the 
Conference  in  relation  to  this  subject  says: 

“ The  Berlin  Conference  has  closed  its  meetings  with  compli- 
ments all  around ; but  if  the  African  tribes  of  the  Congo  basin 
could  speak  on  behalf  of  themselves  and  their  future  interests 
they  would  be  anything  but  complimentary  to  the  powers — 
France,  Holland  and  Germany — whose  mercenary  greed  has  made 
it  possible  for  the  white  man  to  put  to  the  lips  of  his  sable  breth- 
ren an  untaxed  bowl  of  fascinating  but  fury-creating  poison. 
One’s  only  hope  for  these  poor  creatures  is  that  they  will  prove 
more  civilized  than  their  tempters,  and  drive  out  from  their 
midst  the  dealers  in  liquid  madness.  The  Berlin  Conference 
closes,  at  all  events,  with  one  page  of  indelible  infamy  in  the 
record  of  its  proceedings.” 


MEMORIAL  TO  CONGRESS. 

To  the  United  States  Senate  and  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives : 

Your  memorialists,  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the 
National  Temperance  Society,  respectfully  invite  your 
attention  to  the  great  devastation  now  being  caused 
among  the  native  races  of  Africa  by  the  introduction 
among  them,  by  American  and  other  traders,  of  intox- 
icating liquors ; to  the  fact  that  America  is  estimated  to 
have  sent  to  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  alone  in  1884-5 
an  aggregate  of  921,412  gallons  of  spirits;  that  the 
wholesale  demoralization  and  ruin  thus  resulting  from 
strong  drink  is  a great  injury  to  legitimate  commerce, 
in  our  relations  with  Africa,  as  well  as  disastrous  to  the 
temporal  and  spiritual  well-being  of  an  untutored  peo- 
ple whom  philanthropic  and  Christian  men  and  women 
of  our  own  country  seek  to  civilize  and  Christianize ; 
and  we  hereby  earnestly  ask  you,  in  the  exercise  of  the 
authority  vested  in  you  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  “ to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  na- 
tions” [Article  1,  Section  8],  promptly  to  adopt  appro- 
priate and  effective  measures  for  the  discouragement  and 
suppression  of  this  wasteful  and  destructive  African  ex- 
portation of  intoxicating  liquors  by  American  citizens. 

In  behalf  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  National 
Temperance  Society. 

Theodore  L.  Cuyler, 

J.  N.  Stearns,  President. 

Corresponding  Secretary . 

New  York,  September  27,  1887. 


